The Maison’s muse

Empress Joséphine

Meet Joséphine

As the Maison’s first great client, Empress Joséphine has inspired Chaumet’s creations for over two centuries with her grace and character.

Fashion icon, woman of power and passionate lover, Joséphine and her legendary romance with Napoleon were the starting point of Chaumet’s story.

Explore the Joséphine collection

Who was Joséphine?

Exiled to the continent from Martinique, separated from her first husband, imprisoned during the French Revolution; a widow, a caring mother, the First Consul’s wife, then Empress of the French, divorcée—Joséphine is a romantic figure.

As ambassador of imperial France, she reinvented fashion and imposed her style. She brought tiaras, symbols of power and radiant femininity, back into fashion in order to refine her royal look. Possessed of a free spirit inclined to nature and happiness, she liberated herself from conventions and corsets, draping herself in airy veils, vaporous tulles and diaphanous muslins.

Joséphine was also an empress of hearts, inspiring in Napoleon an unparalleled passion, immortalized by numerous meaningful jewelry pieces created by the Maison.

At the origins of the Chaumet legend

Milan, 1805. As the emperor and empress prepared to be crowned king and queen of Italy, the destiny of the Maison not yet called Chaumet intersected with that of Joséphine.

François-Regnault Nitot, the Maison’s founder’s son, had been entrusted with a sumptuous tiara commissioned by Napoleon for the Pope and stopped off in Milan to present this exceptional creation to the imperial couple. Joséphine marveled at the lavish creation while Napoleon congratulated the craftsman. Nitot's destiny had just changed. He became Joséphine's favorite jeweler.

Thenceforth, the ceremonial jewels commissioned from the Maison, such as the malachite cameo and intaglio ornaments, graced Joséphine's figure.

The Empress' jewels

As the empress of a new regime whose splendor had to be on display, Joséphine dressed in gold, pearls and precious stones. Her tiaras and ornaments evoked symbols that Napoleon borrowed from antiquity: laurels, oak leaves, and others. A bouquet of ears of wheat was mounted on a tiara that she wore for her appearance at her first official ceremony.

Ears of wheat tiara, similar to the Empress’

Pearl-earrings-Empress-Joséphine-Chaumet

Empress Joséphine’s earrings

Empress Joséphine’s acrostic bracelets

In her private life, Joséphine chose her everyday jewelry according to her heart’s desires. Her acrostic bracelets matched colored stones to letters of the alphabet to compose the names of her two children, Eugène and Hortense.

This is a tradition of meaningful jewelry that never ceases to inspire Chaumet. Even today, every single creation of the Maison echoes the audacious and free spirit of this resolutely modern woman of yesteryear.

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Joséphine collection

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Joséphine collection

Empress Joséphine

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